FAQ

Answers to common questions.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

How long does mixing and mastering take?

From receipt of your files, we can normally turn around tracks within 72 hours, or whole albums within a week. In some circumstances, the turnaround time will be longer but we will give you an accurate estimate when you make your enquiry.

As a rough guideline, most mixes take between 2-3 hours work per track @ £40 per hour, but some may take longer if they are particularly complex.

What is the best file format to submit for mixing / mastering?

Please provide 16bit or 24bit .wav stems at 44.1khz.

Is there anything special I need to do to the audio stems/layers before I send them to you?

Ensure that each stem starts from ZERO [the very beginning of the track] meaning that the stems can be loaded up easily with every element in its correct place.

Please submit a reference mix / rough mix with your stems.

Check that the volumes on your supplied stems are roughly the same as on your reference mix with no digital clipping.

What is the best way to send files over?

You can easily upload a .zip file of your stems folder using WeTransfer / Google Drive or similar file upload systems.

When I submit a track to be mixed, should I keep my effects and processing or give you the stems raw?

Please remove excessive limiting and compression from the master fader. It is important to supply the stems with some headroom (i.e. not too loud).

Vocals are best supplied dry, so please remove any reverb / delays from the vocal stems.

However, on the instrumental parts please do keep any of your ‘creative processing’ that you have done (delays, EQ’s, compression, flanging etc.) in order to retain the general feel of your composition.

What are your payment terms?

Payment is preferred by bank transfer. We require full payment before we send over finished work. Any payment not received within 28 days of invoice will be subject to statutory legal action.

This is very cheap mastering, Is it going to sound good?

According to our philosophy, mastering does not, and should not take very long. In some more unscrupulous studios it is common practice that unattended mastering jobs actually take the engineer just 20-30 minutes… yet they often charge upwards of £200 per track by invoicing for hours of work. We are 100% honest with our customers in how fast we work and therefore we are able to provide very cheap mastering for everyone whilst maintaining our high standards.

If your questions have not been answered, feel free to drop us a message using our contact form.